Labor costs consume more than thirty percent of the price of a head of lettuce.
En los márgenes entre la tierra y la mesa, Marina Lambertini coordina mil hectáreas de producción hortícola a lo largo de Argentina, tejiendo conocimiento, trazabilidad y tecnología en un sector que alimenta al país pero que aún cosecha a mano. Su trayectoria —desde los invernáculos de su juventud hasta los campos de Patagonia— encarna una tensión más amplia: la de una agricultura que puede imaginar su transformación pero que todavía no cuenta con las herramientas ni el financiamiento para alcanzarla. Lo que está en juego no es solo la competitividad de un sector, sino la pregunta de si las estructuras económicas de un país acompañan o frenan a quienes trabajan para alimentarlo.
- El costo de la mano de obra supera el 30% del precio de una lechuga, y la cosecha sigue haciéndose a cuchillo y a ras del suelo, como hace décadas.
- Las generaciones más jóvenes abandonan el trabajo hortícola: el sol, el frío, la humedad y la inestabilidad de los precios expulsan a quienes podrían sostener el sector.
- Las máquinas que en otros países ya reemplazan el deshierbe manual existen, pero los aranceles de importación y la ausencia de líneas de crédito específicas las vuelven inalcanzables para el productor argentino.
- Lambertini responde con lo que tiene: comparte protocolos de trazabilidad, buenas prácticas agrícolas y conocimiento técnico con entre diez y quince productores distribuidos en zonas que van desde Mar del Plata hasta Chubut.
- La horticultura argentina llega cada día a las góndolas de supermercados y restaurantes gracias a quienes aprendieron a producir dentro de los límites; la pregunta urgente es si el país construirá las condiciones para producir más allá de ellos.
Marina Lambertini tenía trece años cuando vio por primera vez a un ingeniero agrónomo sostener una espiga de trigo y calcular la cosecha entera a partir de ese único ejemplar. Esa imagen la acompañó hasta la Universidad de Buenos Aires, donde se graduó en 1992, y la llevó no hacia la ganadería sino hacia los invernáculos que comenzaban a redefinir lo que los argentinos podían comer y en qué época del año.
Hoy coordina cerca de mil hectáreas de producción hortícola distribuidas en las principales zonas productivas del país. En verano, el eje es Mar del Plata; en invierno, la provincia de Buenos Aires y Bella Vista, Corrientes; en otoño y primavera, Mendoza. La empresa también explora Chubut y Neuquén, buscando las temperaturas moderadas que el cambio climático vuelve cada vez más escasas en otras latitudes. Detrás de cada bolsa de hojas verdes hay una red de suelos, semillas, lavado, trazabilidad y logística que Lambertini articula junto a entre diez y quince productores por zona.
Su enfoque apuesta por la formalización en un sector que en gran parte opera en la informalidad: comparte tecnología, protocolos de buenas prácticas agrícolas y criterios de uso responsable de agroquímicos aprobados por Senasa. Pero hay obstáculos que el conocimiento técnico no puede resolver solo. La mano de obra representa más del 30% del costo de una lechuga, la cosecha sigue siendo manual, y los trabajadores —expuestos al sol, el frío y la humedad, con ingresos atados a precios volátiles— están abandonando el sector.
La mecanización existe en otros países y podría transformar la competitividad de la horticultura argentina, pero los aranceles de importación son prohibitivos y no existen líneas de financiamiento diseñadas para este tipo de empresas. Lambertini ve con claridad el camino: crédito adaptado y tecnología accesible. Lo que todavía no existe es la infraestructura institucional para recorrerlo.
Marina Lambertini was thirteen when her father bought a small cattle ranch, and she fell in love not with the animals but with the agronomist who advised him. She would watch for hours as he held up a wheat stalk or ear of corn and explained how he could calculate the entire harvest from that single specimen. By the time she graduated from the University of Buenos Aires in 1992 with a degree in agricultural engineering, she knew exactly where her life was headed—not toward livestock, but toward the greenhouses that were beginning to transform what Argentines could eat and when.
The greenhouses fascinated her because they promised something her grandmother's generation never had: tomatoes in winter, corn year-round, the possibility of abundance outside the seasons. She spent her early career, from 1993 to 2000, on her family's land in General Madariaga, learning by doing. She hauled water in buckets to irrigate tomatoes because the groundwater wasn't suitable for vegetable production. She moved through soil and seasons, from theory into the stubborn reality of what grows and what doesn't. Later she worked for various companies in the sector, eventually joining Sueño Verde, a firm founded by her university classmates, and then moving to the company she had long admired from a distance.
Today Lambertini coordinates roughly one thousand hectares of vegetable production spread across Argentina's productive zones. In summer, the focus is Mar del Plata. Winter brings intensive greenhouse operations in Buenos Aires province and work with growers in Bella Vista, Corrientes. Mendoza becomes essential in autumn and spring. The company is now exploring new territory in Patagonia—Chubut and Neuquén—searching for the moderate temperatures that climate change is making harder to find elsewhere. The vegetables she manages are mostly leafy greens: lettuce, arugula, spinach, chicory, and cherry tomatoes. Behind every packaged salad sits a complex web of production, washing, traceability, logistics, and distribution. Her job is to select soil, choose seeds, develop producers, and guide each stage of cultivation. A lettuce grown in Mendoza requires different knowledge than one grown in Mar del Plata or in a Buenos Aires greenhouse.
She works directly with between ten and twelve core producers, though in newer zones that number can reach fifteen or more. Argentine horticulture, she notes, remains largely informal—many growers aren't even registered. Her approach is different: she shares knowledge, technology, and traceability protocols. She emphasizes Good Agricultural Practices and responsible use of agrochemicals, working only with products approved by Senasa and respecting dosage and safety periods. The goal is harm reduction for the applicator, the consumer, and the environment.
But the sector faces obstacles that no amount of technical skill can overcome alone. Labor costs consume more than thirty percent of the price of a head of lettuce. Harvesting still happens the old way—workers bent over, cutting with knives at ground level, a process that demands enormous amounts of time and people. Leafy greens are especially unforgiving because they spoil quickly; the speed of harvest and processing is everything. Younger generations are leaving this work. The conditions are brutal—sun, cold, humidity—and the pay, while tied to what the product is worth, fluctuates wildly with supply and demand. Some seasons the market rewards growers; others it doesn't.
Mechanization could change everything. In other countries, machines already exist that can manage weeds without chemicals and without manual labor. Argentina is nowhere near that reality. The barriers are structural: import costs remain prohibitively high, and there are no financing lines designed for horticultural businesses. For an individual producer, making that investment is nearly impossible. Lambertini sees the path forward clearly—mechanization and adapted credit mechanisms could transform the sector's competitiveness—but the infrastructure to get there doesn't yet exist. Fresh vegetables arrive at Argentine tables every day because people like her have learned to work within constraints. The question now is whether the country will build the systems that let them work beyond them.
Citações Notáveis
The horticulture sector in Argentina is very informal. We seek to develop a different way of working, sharing knowledge, technology, and traceability.— Marina Lambertini
Mechanization could change competitiveness radically, but import barriers and lack of financing adapted to horticultural businesses make investment nearly impossible for individual producers.— Marina Lambertini
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
You manage a thousand hectares across multiple provinces. How do you even keep track of what's growing where?
It's seasonal choreography, really. Summer production concentrates in Mar del Plata where the climate is cooler. When winter comes, we shift to greenhouses in Buenos Aires and work with producers in Corrientes. Mendoza handles spring and autumn. We're also testing new zones in Patagonia because climate change is making traditional areas less reliable. Every region has different soil, different water, different timing.
And the producers themselves—are they all large operations?
No, that's actually one of the challenges. Many aren't even formally registered. We work with ten to twelve core producers, sometimes more in newer areas. The sector is very informal. Our approach is to develop them differently—sharing knowledge, technology, traceability. It's not just about production; it's about building a system.
You mentioned traceability. Why does that matter so much for lettuce?
Because leafy greens are extremely perishable. Every single day trucks have to arrive with fresh, safe vegetables. If something goes wrong—contamination, improper handling—it affects everyone downstream. Traceability means we know exactly where every batch came from, how it was grown, what was applied to it. It's accountability.
What's the biggest problem you face that money alone won't solve?
Labor. We still harvest by hand, bent over with a knife at ground level. It takes enormous time and enormous numbers of people. Labor costs are over thirty percent of what a lettuce costs to produce. Younger people won't do this work anymore—it's too hard, too low-paid relative to the conditions. But mechanization exists in other countries. We just can't access it or finance it here.
Why can't you import the machines?
Import costs are prohibitive. And there are no credit lines designed for horticultural businesses. A large agricultural operation can get financing. A vegetable grower? Nearly impossible. So the technology stays out of reach, and we stay dependent on manual labor that's becoming harder to find.
Do you think that changes?
It has to. The sector's competitiveness depends on it. But it requires infrastructure—financing mechanisms, import policy, investment in mechanization. That's not something an individual producer or even a company can solve alone.